Montezemolo's presidential move

Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari, is being tipped to run for the Italian presidency in 2013.

Bologna-born lawyer Montezemolo, 64, has been linked to the move after he wrote an open letter to the Italia Futura party, which has 40,000 members, calling on it to prepare for an election.

"The Second Republic has failed. We need new faces and new ideas because the next elections will be of historic importance," he wrote, according to the La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. "The first thing that we are going to propose is the sale of the State's assets and a reduction of the public debt.

"There is no way that the Italians want to see the same old faces, the politicians who have allowed the situation to become the way it is. That is why the next elections will not be a matter of routine. It will be a date with history, which must begin a new season in public affairs.

"In 2012, Italia Futura will work hard to achieve this by promoting the new ideas and new faces that Italy deserves. We will start working even harder at a grassroots level to create a strong, united network throughout Italy by June".

It is not yet clear if or how a presidential campaign would affect Montezemolo's role at Ferrari, where he has served as president for the past 20 years.